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Musk And Trump Torpedo Bipartisan Short-Term Spending Bill; Mangione En Route To Manhattan To Face State, Federal Charges; Hard- Line Republicans Threaten To Oust Johnson As Speaker; House GOP Will Hold One Narrowest Majorities Ever When New Congress Begins On January 3; Gloria Borger Says Goodbye After 17 Years At CNN. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired December 19, 2024 - 12:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[12:30:00]

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CHIEF DOMESTIC CORRESPONDENT: Now, throwing a debt ceiling into a baked negotiation, a baked agreement, essentially nukes it based on what we all know, having covered dozens upon dozens of these deals and standoffs --

DANA BASH, CNN ANCHOR: Right.

MATTINGLY: -- over the course of the last couple of years. But we also have never seen an Elon Musk with his platform, with his push, with his support within the conference before. So I think I would urge folks to kind of step back a bit and widen the aperture and say, who knows? I -- we don't know.

BASH: Yes, yes.

MATTINGLY: This is all very, very different. And this is also going to be the roadmap and playbook for what's ahead. This matters a lot right now.

BASH: And Kristen, the question about Johnson and negotiating this deal, which was done over months and months and months. My understanding from my reporting is Donald Trump, even though he doesn't get involved in the details, frankly, nor should he, he's not president yet, he was aware of the parameters of what's in this deal.

Johnson kept him informed. I think Johnson knew that Donald Trump wanted to do away with the debt ceiling and get it off his plate, but maybe didn't understand the --

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Level?

BASH: -- level of -- well, that Johnson maybe didn't understand the level that he wanted to do it, but also that Trump doesn't really fully comprehend how difficult that is to do.

HOLMES: And I think that makes perfect sense, right? That he does not have any idea about the ins and outs and intricacies of what happens on the Hill. I also think it is silly to, you know, this idea that Senator Hawley told Manu Raju last night that Trump said he was completely blindsided by some of the stuff in the bill.

Johnson has been in lockstep with Donald Trump every step of the way.

BASH: It come often (ph).

HOLMES: And Johnson owes his entire speakership career to Donald Trump not stepping on him. I mean, we know that several of Trump's allies were coming to Trump and essentially begging him to help get rid of Johnson, and Trump stood by his side.

So the idea that Johnson at some point went rogue is really just silly. I do think that the dynamic between Johnson and Trump and now Elon Musk and Johnson and Trump is one of the most fascinating parts of this entire story --

BASH: Yes.

HOLMES: -- because I do believe that up until yesterday, when you started seeing the pushback from Elon Musk on Twitter, Johnson thought he was cruising ahead. You know, despite whatever pushback he might have gotten from Donald Trump or even from some of the conservatives, he thought he had the speakership. He thought that he had this deal under control. He thought everything was coming together.

Now, you're seeing Donald Trump coming out and saying things like, well, if he can get this done, of course he should be speaker. I mean, this is a very different tone than what we've heard for the last several months from Donald Trump.

BASH: And I just want to put this up because not only did Elon Musk send out that first post, which sent everybody scrambling and really did torpedo this deal. He did like, I don't know, tens of maybe even close to 100 --

NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes.

BASH: -- follow up, including this. "No bills should be passed in Congress until January 20th when Donald Trump takes office. None. Zero."

HENDERSON: Yes. Which, I mean --

BASH: Also like -- that means I want the government to be shut.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Shut down.

HENDERSON: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

HENDERSON: Yes.

BASH: And how are you going to have an inauguration or have a new Congress if the government is not open?

HENDERSON: Yes. Elon Musk does not understand how Washington works. He doesn't understand that there's a slim majority in the House. He doesn't seem to understand that Donald Trump's not president. He doesn't understand, presumably, that the Senate is controlled by Democrats at this point.

But this unpredictable duo between Donald Trump and Elon Musk, what seemed to have happened is Elon Musk is out there tweeting voraciously over an hour, dozens and dozens of tweets. And then Donald Trump follows behind him.

Now Donald Trump is sort of rewriting the story and saying that he called Elon Musk and they talked about this. They were in agreement. And then he told Elon Musk, go ahead and tweet about it if you want to.

I think it's unlikely. I think there's a little CYA going on with Donald Trump because it does appear that there is this sort of co- presidency going on here.

BASH: Yes.

GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, who's in charge?

HENDERSON: Yes. Who's in charge?

BASH: And that narrative -- I'm just going to take a quick break -- that narrative about --

HENDERSON: Who's in charge?

BASH: -- Elon Musk maybe being the president-elect --

HENDERSON: Yes.

BASH: -- that is not going to sit well with Donald Trump.

HENDERSON: Not going to sit well with Donald Trump.

BORGER: You think?

BASH: The suspected CEO killer is making his way to a federal courtroom in Manhattan. We're going to take you live to Downtown Manhattan after a quick break.

Plus, Mike Johnson, is he going to lose the speaker's gavel? Donald Trump suddenly doesn't seem all that eager to save him. We'll talk about that next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:39:02]

BASH: Moments ago, the helicopter carrying suspected CEO killer, Luigi Mangione, lifted off from an airport on Long Island. It is now en route to Manhattan, where he is about to face multiple new federal charges.

CNN's Brynn Gingras is live in Downtown Manhattan. Brynn, what can you tell us about what is awaiting him when he arrives?

BRYNN GINGRAS, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Dana. So I'm expecting that helicopter ride to take about 30 or 40 minutes, I'm told. So probably Mangione will be here where we are and about the top of the hour. But I can tell you right now, there are a number of officials here on the scene waiting for him.

I'm going to get out of the way so Rod (ph) can zoom in for me. You can see a bunch of them standing there at the -- we're at the Wall Street Heliport waiting for his arrival. And I got to tell you, this is a lot of law enforcement.

I haven't really seen this much for an arrival of a suspect or defendant in quite a long time. I can tell you the NYPD aviation is in the water. There are NYPD helicopters that are, rather not helicopters, that motorcycles that are standing by.

[12:40:05]

There are officers here that are in full tactical gear with long guns, and members from the NYPD, FBI, JTTF, members from just the NYPD and the FBI in general. I mean, it's a pretty large spectacle of people.

In the meantime, I can tell you that there are also tourists that are still coming in from their helicopter ride. So obviously those will be done when Mangione gets closer.

What I do know is that once he does arrive here by helicopter, we believe he's going to be walked along the side of this building where those officers are all now standing. And then he's going to be brought into a Sprinter van, which is led by two black SUVs, and make his way to 500 Pearl, where he's going to first face those federal charges that you guys have been talking about.

But you can see, Dana, there are now officers who are starting now to move closer to wait for his arrival. Again, we do expect that to happen in the next 20 to 30 minutes or so from now.

BASH: Wow. That is quite a scene. Brynn, thank you for that reporting. Please thank my friend Rod (ph) for his terrific camera work there. And we will be getting back to you as soon as we see that helicopter touchdown.

Coming up, will the funding fight cost Speaker Johnson his gavel?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:45:52]

BASH: Speaker Johnson has two weeks to shore up GOP support if he wants to hang on to his gavel. This potential shutdown is not helping. This morning, President-elect Trump had this to say in a conversation with NBC when asked whether he still has confidence in the Speaker. Quote, "We'll see. What they had yesterday was unacceptable.

In many ways, it was unacceptable. It's a Democrat trap."

My panel is back here. Please translate.

HOLMES: I mean, this is obviously him shying away from Speaker Johnson. This is the least supportive we've seen of Speaker Johnson that Trump has been in months, if not over a year. And as we were talking about in the break, I mean, the two of them have been attached at the hip.

They've been -- Johnson was there on election night. He left where he was early to show up and be on the stage with him. He got praise from Donald Trump. And we know behind the scenes Trump was praising him as well. He was invited to Mar-a-Lago all the time. The two of them were talking.

Clearly, this has all shifted in the past 24 hours, which is why I truly believe that this dynamic now with Elon Musk involved is one of the most fascinating, because it just goes to show you how everything in the Trump world is transactional and how quickly everything can change on a dime. And that has not changed.

BORGER: Well, maybe Johnson hasn't spent enough time sucking up to Elon Musk. You know, that's a question, too. I mean, Donald Trump demands loyalty, but does not give loyalty. And if I'm Johnson, I'm thinking I spent all of this time going to the Army-Navy gang, going to Mar-a-Lago, and try to explain what was going on to Donald Trump, trying to get his sign off because he knows he needs it.

He gets his sign off on it and then suddenly Trump and Musk throw a grenade. And if I'm Johnson, I'm thinking, well, they just blew my job also.

BASH: Yes. And you guys know this, but just he said publicly, Mike Johnson, he didn't -- he wasn't gunning for this job originally. He was a backbencher and he was, you know, relatively new considering and that if they take it away from him tomorrow, he's still, you know, he'll be OK with that.

It's one thing to say that when you feel really good about having the confidence of the guy that matters. Well, one of the guys that matters, Donald Trump. Now we know it's two guys, Elon Musk as well.

But it's another thing to kind of face that and face the prospect of spending a lot of time now trying to find votes in a very, very narrow majority. Just so our viewers understand what we're talking about, the new House GOP, 29 Republicans -- new House balance of power, I should say, 29 -- let's try that again. 219 Republicans, 215 Democrats, which means he can only lose like two --

MATTINGLY: Two.

BASH: -- Republican votes.

MATTINGLY: Right. And that's before he loses Michael Waltz, who will be the national security adviser, Elise Stefanik, who by all accounts looks like will be confirmed to be his U.N. ambassador. Matt Gaetz isn't going to be there as well because of his resignation for his failed attorney general nomination. It raises the question, why would anybody want this job to begin with. And I don't mean that sarcastically.

BASH: Yes.

MATTINGLY: Like, it is extraordinarily difficult what they're going to be trying to do because of what Donald Trump has laid out as his agenda in his second term is going to be an extraordinarily heavy lift. However, once you're in it, to your point, speaker suite's pretty nice, great patio.

And also he's been doing -- he was flying around the country, helping getting people elected, holding on to that majority, which I think a lot of people assume Democrats would be able to win. You're part of this now. You're in it. You want to be in it. You are in the room, and that's critically important.

I would just quickly say that, like, the one thing people need to understand here, they're talking about a shutdown that would go through January 3rd. They would go through January 6th, which is a pretty important day for the president-elect as well. How this all shakes out and what it means for Mike Johnson, what it means for the spending bill, what it means for the months and years ahead.

BORGER: An inauguration.

BASH: Yes.

MATTINGLY: An inauguration. We don't know.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

BASH: And January 3rd is the day that new Congress switch (ph).

MATTINGLY: Yes.

[12:50:02]

HENDERSON: And, you know, I mean, as you point out, I mean, the timeline is very short and the plan is non-existent other than sort of tweets and wish casting about ending the debt ceiling limit. The other thing I think for Mike Johnson is it's not clear who would actually, you know, fill the role, I guess, if Donald Trump named somebody, maybe that person could sail through.

Rand Paul is talking about Elon Musk being the next speaker of the House, maybe.

BASH: So is Marjorie Taylor Greene.

HENDERSON: Yes, Marjorie Taylor Greene is --

BASH: Not --

BORGER: Why not?

BASH: -- Marjorie's speaker, she's saying Elon Musk.

HENDERSON: Elon Musk, yes, yes.

BORGER: Well, it takes nine votes to vacate the chair now.

BASH: Yes.

BORGER: It's not just one.

HENDERSON: Yes.

BORGER: So --

HENDERSON (?): But they've gone nine.

BORGER: -- it makes it a little bit more difficult.

BASH: All right, don't go anywhere. We'll be right back. Stick around.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BASH: Gloria Borger is an icon. A reporter's reporter who spent years covering Congress and politics with must read articles and columns for anyone who wanted to know anything about what was happening here in Washington.

And then 17 years ago, she joined CNN as a senior political analyst. It was September of 2007, George W. Bush was president.

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: We're only about 19 minutes away from the president's address to the nation on his new plans for the war in Iraq. Joining us now, the newest member of the best political team on television, our Senior Political Analyst, Gloria Borger. Welcome, Gloria, to CNN.

[12:55:02]

BORGER: They really did not want the president to give an address to the nation this evening. A lot of Republicans I spoke with today, both in the presidential campaigns and on Capitol Hill, said, look, we thought General Petraeus did very well.

He has more credibility than the president does when it comes to managing the war in Iraq. Why didn't the president leave it alone? And they said he's doing this because this is his moment. He wants to take credit for drawing down the troops.

(END VIDEOCLIP)

BASH: And for the better part of two decades, Gloria informed viewers here and readers on CNN.com with original reporting, insightful analysis and illuminating interviews. The list there is quite long. Multiple interviews with Joe Biden, including an exclusive sit down with then-vice president ahead of the second Obama inauguration. Same goes for Mitt Romney where she's profiled extensively over the years, along with many other politicians and candidates for office, among them the late John McCain.

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)

BORGER: There are outside groups here. You know who they are. Many with ties to Ted Cruz, who have raised millions of dollars for Tea Party candidates off of this whole shutdown controversy. And some of them, including your former running mate Sarah Palin, are talking about primary opponents.

What's your response to that, that they want to primary people who actually voted the way you did to end the shutdown? I mean, are there two Republican parties here now in a civil war?

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: Well, I think you've got to have some straight talk. There are divisions within the Republican Party. I just wish it would be respectful. I respect Ted Cruz. I respect these people and their views.

BORGER: Well, you did call him wacko bird once.

MCCAIN: You know, and I apologize for it.

(END VIDEOCLIP)

BASH: Boy, the more things change, the more they stay the same.

Gloria came up in journalism when women in the newsroom were rare and therefore sometimes fought against one another instead of fighting for each other. Gloria helped change that. She has been a leader in the true sisterhood that developed among the women who work here, a mentor, a great friend to so many.

BORGER: Oh, thank you.

BASH: Gloria, especially to me.

BORGER: Thank you.

BASH: We're really going to miss you. You're ending your time here at the end of the year.

BORGER: Yes, I am. It's been, you know, such a joy. And you mentioned the women. I see the women sitting at this table. We have all been true friends supporting each other, and that has been distinctive about CNN.

And as I look back -- sorry, Phil, I'm talking about the women. But as I look back and I think of all the women who have come up through the ranks, including the three here, I'm so proud of everything that you've all accomplished. And I feel like CNN is in a really good place.

BASH: All right, let's talk about you. BORGER: No, no.

HENDERSON: It has been such an honor to sit on panels next to you. I remember the first time it happened when I was on a -- about 10 years ago, when I started your presence, your command of the facts, your generosity with colleagues has been so special to all of us. And I'm going to miss you --

HOLMES: And pave the way for all of us.

HENDERSON: Yes.

BORGER: Well, thank you. You know, I don't think of myself as a pioneer, but I do think of myself as someone who has enjoyed my time here with wonderful colleagues, male and female. And I just think that I want to watch that continue. And I'll be cheering for everyone.

I mean, I remember when Dana and I had offices next to each other, we called it the estrogen corner.

BASH: We did.

BORGER: We did.

MATTINGLY: Can I just quickly say, though --

BASH: Yes.

MATTINGLY: -- since she said male --

BORGER: Are you allowed?

BASH: You are. You are.

MATTINGLY: Put the journalism aside, we all know it. You've gone through it. It's very well understood. When good things happen to me personally, Gloria was one of the first people to send me a note. When bad things happen to me personally or professionally, Gloria was one of the first people to send me a note.

That, I think, is the true sign of character and a leader inside an organization. And that's -- that matters a lot.

BORGER: Thank you. I appreciate that because it is family, that's what you do.

HOLMES: And we have felt like you are family.

HENDERSON: Yes.

HOLMES: And we are thankful.

HENDERSON: And you'll always be part of the family.

BASH: And Gloria --

BORGER: Thank you.

BASH: -- there is no other way that we would end this discussion other than to tell you that we have breaking news. We love you.

BORGER: Thank you.

BASH: But we are going to go to the helicopter carrying Luigi Mangione. It is arriving in Downtown New York, and then he will head to a federal courthouse to face murder charges. We are going to be watching that as it happens.

We don't see the helicopter quite yet. There it is. Oh, there's the helicopter. So the helicopter has just arrived. And we saw from Brynn's report just a few minutes ago that he is being greeted by a lot of federal law enforcement, New York law enforcement. And so we expect him to exit that helicopter momentarily and head into the courthouse.

Don't go anymore -- don't go anywhere because we, of course, will continue this coverage. Thank you for joining Inside Politics today. CNN News Central will pick it up right now.